PBP and Brevet rides.
/
Sooooooo
I almost changed my objective training macro plan(s), made in early Spring about what Brevets and rides to do to get ready for PBP. Could it be the satisfaction of registering for PBP , last Friday night, took over the carefully laid plans to be conservative with my training and rehab?
Or.. was I getting worried listening to all of the stories of fellow Randonneurs doing multiple 600kms Brevets and 1,000km rides and I felt left out? I want my 1,000km. I do! I want to get the Randonneur 5000 award. I WILL!
It's been a hard road coming back but I am starting to feel stronger on the bike, in the gym, on the floor -doing my exercises. A little bit of progress at a time. Far more slowly than I would like to see or would have expected. The hip is doing better then I had expected but the wrist is not going very well. My back is slowly getting better and the neck seems to be holding up. Knees... not bad. Still, I CAN ride the bike and I am grateful for this. I AM! I just get whiny about it at times. Ahhh, live today, not in the past. Live for who you can be right now-not who you used to be.
We were able to place our entry into Paris Brest Paris (PBP) on Friday night. I crack jokes that I needed a cue sheet and map just to get through registration. I was impatient, as the site had some glitches and it was not actually my own lack of ciber weaving data entry but the site just needed me to be patient.
If you need a recap of what and how... here you go...
This step has been the long awaited part of the PBP preparation. Registration was a challenge, as you have to have a lot of information included while you register. First you go to one web site to pull your homologation (I think that's the word they use) numbers from the qualifying events. This is actually the second step as we did this back in April for the pre qualifying registration. Remember, we pre-qualifyed by doing several pre qualifying events last year. I crammed those in after the cancer surgery and before the hip surgery. Steve was able to get in one longer Brevet event than I was (more on this later below) but my 600km Brevet event allowed me enough "points" to sigh up early this year. Signing up early allowed for us to give 30 euros and have a place "held" until this week. The intent is that you are going to register for PBP, do the 2011 qualifiers and then fully register.
There is an award called the Randonneur 5000 award. There have only been 26 American women to get this award. I would like to be one of those. You have to start by being (completing) a series of Brevets and this means you have completed what's called a SR series-or Super Randonneur. The Super Randonneur award recognizes those riders who finish an ACP-sanctioned (Audax Club Parisien -ACP-is the organization from France) brevet series of 200 km, 300 km, 400 km, and 600 km in a calendar year. This is something we have been completing each year since 09. The Randonneur 5000 award is for those riders completing at least 5000 kilometers of brevets (including a Paris-Brest-Paris, a full ACP series of 200 km, 300 km, 400 km, 600 km, and 1000 km brevets, and a Flèche team event) within a four-year period.
All I would have left for this award is the 1000km brevet, once I have completed PBP. I would have liked to have completed it already but because we don't know what my hip or wrist will do with such a great distance, we (Steve and I) have decided to wait until we finish PBP and then set my sights on the 1000km brevet. Maybe even do it in another country. It gets quite tedious doing this much riding all of the time and with so many official events- to get to PBP-which only happens every 4 years and I want this goal/accomplishment and it has really helped be the carrot for my recovery.
Tedious? Well, I miss my mountain bike and have only been able to ride it a handful of times since the accident. Hope this changes in the next year or so as my hand gets stronger. I love riding and the road bike is providing an outlet to this thing I love. You know, the wind, the smells, the sights.....
Each of these events is to be completed self supported. We load up our bikes to carry almost everything we need. In PBP we will be allowed two drop bags. We'll place extra gear in these and plan on changing out clothes at least 2x during the 1200km of PBP. Oh, we have signed up for the 90 hour category. This means that we will be official finishers of PBP, when we complete it in or under 90 hours. There are two other categories; 84 hours and 80 hours. The risk for choosing these times can be that something goes wrong along the route and you do not make it in under your allotted time-then you are DNF-did not finish. Or DQed-disqualified.
We will start PBP at 6:30 PM(or when ever our wave of riders crosses the start line) on Sunday night, August 21st. We will be done by 90 hours later. Steve and I hope to be able to do this under 80 hours but we have the 90 hours to do it in. There are 5-6000 possible riders from all over the world. 719 from the US.
So I will stick to my original plan. Do the 600km this coming weekend. DOn't try to cram in the 1,000km. Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan........
I almost changed my objective training macro plan(s), made in early Spring about what Brevets and rides to do to get ready for PBP. Could it be the satisfaction of registering for PBP , last Friday night, took over the carefully laid plans to be conservative with my training and rehab?
Or.. was I getting worried listening to all of the stories of fellow Randonneurs doing multiple 600kms Brevets and 1,000km rides and I felt left out? I want my 1,000km. I do! I want to get the Randonneur 5000 award. I WILL!
It's been a hard road coming back but I am starting to feel stronger on the bike, in the gym, on the floor -doing my exercises. A little bit of progress at a time. Far more slowly than I would like to see or would have expected. The hip is doing better then I had expected but the wrist is not going very well. My back is slowly getting better and the neck seems to be holding up. Knees... not bad. Still, I CAN ride the bike and I am grateful for this. I AM! I just get whiny about it at times. Ahhh, live today, not in the past. Live for who you can be right now-not who you used to be.
We were able to place our entry into Paris Brest Paris (PBP) on Friday night. I crack jokes that I needed a cue sheet and map just to get through registration. I was impatient, as the site had some glitches and it was not actually my own lack of ciber weaving data entry but the site just needed me to be patient.
If you need a recap of what and how... here you go...
This step has been the long awaited part of the PBP preparation. Registration was a challenge, as you have to have a lot of information included while you register. First you go to one web site to pull your homologation (I think that's the word they use) numbers from the qualifying events. This is actually the second step as we did this back in April for the pre qualifying registration. Remember, we pre-qualifyed by doing several pre qualifying events last year. I crammed those in after the cancer surgery and before the hip surgery. Steve was able to get in one longer Brevet event than I was (more on this later below) but my 600km Brevet event allowed me enough "points" to sigh up early this year. Signing up early allowed for us to give 30 euros and have a place "held" until this week. The intent is that you are going to register for PBP, do the 2011 qualifiers and then fully register.
There is an award called the Randonneur 5000 award. There have only been 26 American women to get this award. I would like to be one of those. You have to start by being (completing) a series of Brevets and this means you have completed what's called a SR series-or Super Randonneur. The Super Randonneur award recognizes those riders who finish an ACP-sanctioned (Audax Club Parisien -ACP-is the organization from France) brevet series of 200 km, 300 km, 400 km, and 600 km in a calendar year. This is something we have been completing each year since 09. The Randonneur 5000 award is for those riders completing at least 5000 kilometers of brevets (including a Paris-Brest-Paris, a full ACP series of 200 km, 300 km, 400 km, 600 km, and 1000 km brevets, and a Flèche team event) within a four-year period.
All I would have left for this award is the 1000km brevet, once I have completed PBP. I would have liked to have completed it already but because we don't know what my hip or wrist will do with such a great distance, we (Steve and I) have decided to wait until we finish PBP and then set my sights on the 1000km brevet. Maybe even do it in another country. It gets quite tedious doing this much riding all of the time and with so many official events- to get to PBP-which only happens every 4 years and I want this goal/accomplishment and it has really helped be the carrot for my recovery.
Tedious? Well, I miss my mountain bike and have only been able to ride it a handful of times since the accident. Hope this changes in the next year or so as my hand gets stronger. I love riding and the road bike is providing an outlet to this thing I love. You know, the wind, the smells, the sights.....
Each of these events is to be completed self supported. We load up our bikes to carry almost everything we need. In PBP we will be allowed two drop bags. We'll place extra gear in these and plan on changing out clothes at least 2x during the 1200km of PBP. Oh, we have signed up for the 90 hour category. This means that we will be official finishers of PBP, when we complete it in or under 90 hours. There are two other categories; 84 hours and 80 hours. The risk for choosing these times can be that something goes wrong along the route and you do not make it in under your allotted time-then you are DNF-did not finish. Or DQed-disqualified.
We will start PBP at 6:30 PM(or when ever our wave of riders crosses the start line) on Sunday night, August 21st. We will be done by 90 hours later. Steve and I hope to be able to do this under 80 hours but we have the 90 hours to do it in. There are 5-6000 possible riders from all over the world. 719 from the US.
So I will stick to my original plan. Do the 600km this coming weekend. DOn't try to cram in the 1,000km. Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan........
